Nansenga nursery school

Just 800m from Open Arms Mangochi is Nansenga. Nansenga is a very poor village, with most of its inhabitants depending on fishing on nearby Lake Malawi.

There are many children in Nansenga who do not have access to nursery education, and so with the help from DePuy Synthes, Johnson & Johnson, Verde Valley school in Arizona, and one grateful grandmother  we are about to change that! Gladys and Adidya, live in Nansenga village. As babies they were cared for by Open Arms Mangochi. They have “graduated” from Open Arms and returned to live with their grandmother. As a sign of gratitude for the care her granddaughters received, the grandmother, Laika, has given Open Arms a piece of land on which to build our 6^th feeding station.

We were extremely grateful to Johnson & Johnson who funded the installation of a borehole in April ahead of the building project. This not only gave us the water needed for the building works, but also provided Nansenga with a source of fresh water. In May work began to transform the land into a nursery school and feeding station where up to 200 children will benefit from a free nursery education and nutritious meal each day. Since then 18 different nationalities have assisted with the creation of the Nansenga feeding Station, and transforming Nansenga village.

3 teams from Johnson & Johnson Europe began building up the foundations of the new feeding station. This work was continued by a visiting church group from Scotland and the interior decoration begun by a visiting group from Verde Valley School in Arizona. – Verde Valley also provided the furniture for the school. The finishing touches will be done in July by Ashville College from Harrogate on their 10^th visit over the last 20 years expedition to Malawi!